Merill Ashley on Ballo della Regina: "Every time we came to a trouble spot, I worried that I might fail Balanchine, that somehow the little trick that could make a sequence work perfectly would be beyond me. A few of the steps he gave me were, in fact, beyond me. Many others were marvelous, but what it was all adding up to or which approach I should be taking escaped me. I knew, however, that Balanchine did not need to wait to see the steps from the audience's perspective before judging their effectiveness. He could see steps close-up and visualize their total impact in a ballet yet to be completed. I was sure he could even see the total effect of steps he had not yet created! It was as if he could visualize the whole before the parts existed. Maybe this explains why he wasn't concerned when we had minor difficulties with one step or another. He knew where he was going, and he could find any number of ways to get there."
--"Dancing for Balanchine" by Merrill Ashley
Merrill Ashley, Ib Andersen. Photo by Martha Swope, 1984. NYPL.
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